Tigers

The largest of the big cats, the tiger Panthera tigris has become the global face of wildlife conservation. Tigers are carnivorous mammals classified in the biological family Felidae, characterized by territorial behavior and specialized hunting skills. The tiger is listed in the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species as a critically endangered species. One of the commonly voiced benefits of protecting tigers is that tiger conservation requires the protection of entire terrestrial ecosystems, essentially large areas of land, which in turn helps protect myriad other plants and animals that live in those ecosystems. Thus, tiger conservation efforts should ideally lead to larger gains in terms of the conservation of biodiversity and genetic diversity in the wild.

The recent history of tigers, however, continues to concern conservationists, biologists, wildlife managers, and others. Despite a complete ban under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) since 1976 of the sale and use of tiger skin, bones, or any other body parts, tiger-derived products continue to be used in traditional Chinese medicines, for which the United States is the main market outside Asia. The plight of the tiger and the dramatic decline in the populations of its subspecies has gained worldwide attention since the 1960s. By then, the tiger was already on a dangerous path toward becoming an endangered species. [Page 1735]It was systematically hunted either as a pest or as a trophy by Indian royalty and the colonial British elite in the 19th and early 20th century in undivided India, the epicenter of its historic range. These days, despite the protection that tigers receive within parks, sanctuaries, reserves, world heritage sites, protected forests, and occasionally as a result of community action to protect their habitat, they are coming in contact with humans as never before. Agricultural expansion; loss of forest cover to mining, dams, and other developmental projects; conversion of natural forest to plantations; poaching of prey species; and destructive activities due to human migration and population growth in areas bordering protected tiger habitat are some of the reasons contributing to the decline in tiger populations.

Historically distributed from the Caspian Sea in the west through south and southeast Asia and up to Siberia and northern China, the tiger is often depicted in Asian mythology representing both good and evil. Durga, a female Hindu deity, is depicted in temples throughout India riding a tiger. Buddha is believed to have offered his body to a starving tigress. Regenerative powers have been attributed to tigers and people believe they are protectors, guardians, and the harbingers of peace. Tigers have inspired ecologists, such as George Schaller of the Wildlife Conservation Society, and continue to inspire artists specializing in tiger paintings at the Ranthambhore School of Art.

India is home to the world's largest population of tigers, estimated at between 3,000 and 4,700 individuals, while an optimistic estimate for the entire world pegs the number at about 7,500. Traditionally, in countries like Nepal and India, tiger numbers have been estimated by counting their pug marks; plaster casts or paper tracings of pug impressions are taken from the ground. This method is in some cases supplemented by the use of radio telemetry and DNA-based scat (tiger droppings) and hair [Page 1736]analysis. In recent years, field trials of camera traps to photograph and record individual tigers have been conducted. Human error and technical issues mean that all methods have their limitations and tiger numbers are best viewed as estimates.

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